~20 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Proof theory is a major branch of mathematical logic and theoretical computer science within which proofs are treated as formal mathematical objects, facilitating their analysis by mathematical techniques. Proofs are typically presented as inductively defined data structures such as lists, boxed lists, or trees, which are constructed according to the axioms and rules of inference of a given logical system. Consequently, proof theory is syntactic in nature, in contrast to model theory, which is semantic in nature.
Some of the major areas of proof theory include structural proof theory, ordinal analysis, provability logic, proof-theoretic semantics, reverse mathematics, proof mining, automated theorem proving, and proof complexity. Much research also focuses on applications in computer science, linguistics, and philosophy.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “proof theory” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.